Business 2.0 reported that another familiar face at Microsoft is jumping ship to Google.

The ex-Softie in question, Vic Gundotra, will spend a year doing charitable works before taking an as-yet undetermined role at the Mountain View, Calif., Internet search giant that's emerging as one of Microsoft's biggest competitors. The break is probably to avoid violation of any non-compete agreements.

Gundotra was a technical pitchman at Microsoft in his job as a general manager for platform evangelism. He'd been at the company for 15 years and had a relatively prominent public profile. He routinely joined top executives during presentations to customers at major company events.

Google's official statement:

Mr. Gundotra has resigned from Microsoft and entered into an agreement with Google. Though the financial arrangements are confidential, he will not be a Google employee for one year and intends to spend that time on philanthropic pursuits. We are uncertain what precise role he will play when he begins working for Google, but he has a broad range of skills and experience which we believe will be valuable to Google.